History Fridge / PokemonBlackAndWhite

* The Ferris Wheel dates are just fun, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes poignant looks into the lives of various NPCs, with touches of romance. ...But it gets infinitely more [[NoYay creepy]] when one realizes that many of these characters are adults, and while older than most other protagonists Hilbert/Hilda is still most likely only 14 (as indicated by the fact that Cheren is 14 according to WordOfGod). Gets especially creepy when that one hiker is implied to be lamenting over Hilbert in the sequel; hikers are middle-aged men. This middle-aged man is crying over being supposedly rejected by a 14-year-old boy. Ew...

* Cleffa, Clefairy, Igglybuff, Jigglypuff, and Happiny's; Friend Guard. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming They just want to help their friends.]]

* Route 4 is essentially {{Gangsterland}}. Gangsters? Check. (Scraggy/Scrafty) Crooks? Check. (Sandile/Krokorok/Krookodile) Pyromaniacs? Check. (Darumaka) Drug users? Check. (Sigilyph) If you ''really'' wanna stretch it, there's creeps (Frillish/Jellicent) and Hobos (Dweeble/Crustle)too.

** That explains the landslides that made it inaccessible in Black and White 2: It eventually became unstable due to the increasing amount of tunnels and trainers traversing the place!

* While playing through the Desert Resort, I noticed that, instead of just not being allowed into the deep sand like HG/SS/D/P/Pt's tall grass and marsh tiles, the bicycle runs very slowly when running through it. For awhile, I passed this off as another style of deterrent, but, while hunting for Sigilyph, it struck me: running through sand is the fastest, walking gives you normal speed, and biking is almost unbearably slow -- what's faster, walking normally or walking a bike? (There's no sprite change to back this up, but I'm going with it!)

* It's been mentioned on other pages that Cheren is said to be a strong trainer while Bianca is a weak one, despite her team being objectively better than his. The thing is that the producers are going back to Karen's speech back in the Johto games -- a truly skilled trainer tries to win with their favorites. So basically, Cheren does so well not because of the stats and moves of his team, but because he has faith in them and believes in them, even pre-character development (he just gets his priorities straight after that point). The makers are just subtly reinforcing that idea that you can be a good trainer without using all the same Pokémon everyone else does.

* The elemental monkeys' names already made sense, but Pansear's is especially apt, considering the first place you're likely to see/use it -- the Striation Gym, which doubles as a restaurant. What do you want to bet that Chili is an expert at pan-searing entrees?

* Some Team Plasma members are really WellIntentionedExtremist[=s=] while [[spoiler:others seem to be following Ghetsis' true plan. One of the Seven Sages said they were convinced to join Team Plasma by Ghetsis offering them what they wanted; he did the same with the Grunts. Some were recruited by truly good intentions while others were recruited with the promise of power. Incidentally, this also goes with the legendaries Team Plasma is involved with, one fighting for truths, the other for ideals. Some of Team Plasma are working for Ghetsis' true purposes while some are fighting for Team Plasma's ideals. It fits with the truth/ideals and general yin/yang theme.]]

* A Team Plasma grunt tells you that Team Rocket and Team Galactic were defeated because they drew too much attention to themselves (paraphrasing since I don't remember the actual quote). Team Plasma isn't fully defeated until [[spoiler:N raises the castle, drawing the attention of everyone to them.]]

** Or maybe it's just that it's been a long time since Magma and Aqua's schemes. The [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl universe plan in Sinnoh]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver radio incident in ''Johto'']] happened relatively in a close time frame and were the last teams around, while the [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire weather disaster in Hoenn]] happened ''before'' those. It hasn't happened in recent memory, so it wasn't mentioned.

** Another possible reason for not mentioning them is that Teams Magma and Aqua weren't [[WellIntentionedExtremist actively being criminals]] -- their leaders, at least, genuinely thought their goals would help society, and they repented once they realized that they'd gone too far.

* When you first fight the Elite Four, they make a few references to a previous challenger. [[spoiler:Namely N. However, they didn't seem to care about the fact that they were swept by Reshiram/Zekrom. Before Black and White, a popular strategy against the Elite Four was to use the powerful and recently caught cover legendary. Maybe they're just used to this kind of thing.]]

* N uses a different team each time he's fought. This makes perfect sense when you remember he considered all his Pokemon his close friends. He's letting the Pokemon in the local area help him out, and letting them go home when he leaves the area.

*** Except, technically, you ''don't'' become the Champion right then -- you don't get registered in the Hall of Fame until beating Alder much later. This still has some FridgeBrilliance, though; it's presumably because you fight N in his castle, ''not'' actually at the League itself.

** [[spoiler:Confirmed in a Memory Link in Black 2 and Whtie 2 you can unlock, where it shows N releasing his Pokémon after the fight in Chargestone Cave from Black and White. You can also catch his released Pokémon]].

* In the OST, the theme that plays when N appears is called 'The Equated Captives'. When this troper first read that, before I finished the game, I assumed it was a reference to the way N equates all Pokémon as being captives of trainers. But on checking the OST again after finishing it, it became obvious: [[spoiler:the 'equated captive' is N himself! He was kept captive in his room by his father, in order to satisfy an equation for power he had worked out! To drive the idea home, a remix of the theme -- 'The Child Of Pokémon, N' -- plays when you visit the room in which he was held captive! This makes even more sense in Japanese -- the language doesn't designate plurals, so you'd go through the game reading the title as 'The Equated Captives', until you reached the end and realized that it was actually 'The Equated Captive', singular!]] - Tropers/ClockStopping

** Small correction: N's Klink and Klinklang appear to be separate Pokémon, since you can catch his Klink in [=B2W2=]. Other than that, though, N does indeed seem to be designed with FridgeBrilliance in mind.

* A lot of people theorize N's use of new Pokémon each time you see him as part of him "playing" a Nuzlocke, even going so far as saying that the N in his name even stands for Nuzlocke. At first, I figured this was total garbage. A Nuzlocke is a self-imposed challenge where you have to catch the first Pokémon you run into in every route, and a Pokémon dies if it faints. Why would N, who cares deeply for Pokémon and even believes capturing them is evil, adopt the idea that fainting equals dying just for the challenge and thrill? But then I realized that a Nuzlocke would seem totally different if viewed in the context of the Pokémon world. Pokémon don't actually die in Nuzlockes, and instead players usually release them when they faint. This, combined with the nicknames and the fact that players can't play favorites with wild Pokémon translates to a trainer in-game who doesn't base which Pokémon they use on skill or personal preference, nicknames all their Pokémon to grow closer to them, and holds themselves to a code of honor where, if they allow one of their Pokémon to faint even once, THEY WILL RELEASE IT BACK INTO THE WILD IMMEDIATELY AND NEVER FORCE IT TO BATTLE AGAIN. While it's highly unlikely that the developers intentionally based N's battles around the concept of Nuzlocke runs, this sort of mentality doesn't sound too out of character for N.
** Calling what he's doing a Nuzlocke run is still a case of CowboyBebopAtHisComputer -- the other main rule of Nuzlockes is that you can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route -- if you knock it out or don't like it, tough luck. N uses teams of nearly every Pokémon that can be commonly found on the nearby route(s), breaking this rule from the word go. The "refuse to let a Pokémon faint more than once" mentality is still valid for N, it's just more akin to a standard Permadeath (which lacks the capture restrictions) than a full blown Nuzlocke.
* Two members of N's party were more than capable of taking down the Elite Four; his Archeops with the Flying-type move Acrobatics almost certainly wiped out Marshal's Fighting-types, Dark-type Zoroark would have easily taken down Caitlin's Psychic-types and Shauntal's Ghost-types with Dark-type moves and Grimsley's Dark-types its Fighting-type Focus Blast.

** Hydreigon also owes its design to Ghidorah. [[spoiler:A being who shares Ghetsis' level of morality. ]]

** Ghetsis can also be seen as playing an evil version of Merlin to N's King Arthur, and also an inversion -- rather than helping the king claim the throne, he's using the king to help ''him'' claim the throne.

* If you're paying attention in the battle against Ghetsis, or hacked the data files, you'll find that his team of Pokémon have excellent stats, abilities, and movesets, which suggest [[ArtificialBrilliance he's a brilliant strategist and Trainer]]. However, when you're battling him, he just tries to one-shot all your Pokémon with type-advantages. Why? ''[[VillainousBreakdown He's so mad at you, he can't even think straight]].''

* Paras and Parasect get Damp -- Dry Skin (and its infamouss 5x weakness) no more!

* Corsola gets Regenerator, too -- well, it IS based on coral and coral does regenerate when broken.

* Toxicroak gets Poison Touch -- It wants more effective poison. -shiver-

* Politoed and Ninetales get Drizzle and Drought respectively. They just wanted to be used more by players.

** As computers (or supercomputers, like Metagross is said to be) are redesigned and upgraded through the years, they become lighter and smaller -- compare a big, room-sized 1950s computer to something like a UsefulNotes/{{Mac}}Book Air, which can easily fit in your schoolbag.

* The HUD in the Japanese version is [[GratuitousEnglish more-or-less bilingual]] -- this game ''is'' set in a facsimile of New York, after all.

* Why are the Pokédex entries of Ghost Pokémon, especially in this generation, so cryptic and frightening yet in-game there's no evidence any of entries have happened? Because they're ghost stories!

* The world of Black is tech-savvy and the world of White is nature-based. Their respective legendaries have opposite themes. There are two reasons for this. One, this ties in the Tao theme really well; they are the other, opposite colored dot of the world. Two, [[spoiler:N tries to fight you with the correctly-themed dragon; this is the dragon who probably won over the other the first time, hence how Unova came out.]] You --conquering the opposite-themed dragon and it conquering the other shows that what it represents is just as valid as the other, not better or worse. -Tropers/TheViolentTomboy
** Precisely. Not just simple colors on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the ideas of differing world views that can be seen with Black and White morality as opposed to Shades of Gray. N says that straight up at one point.

* At first the Unova Dex's terrible learn sets (most Pokémon can't find anything beyond STAB and normal moves) seemed like bad design, then it struck me. ''Gen V was meant to evoke Gen I''. Gen I ''did'' have terrible learn sets all around, all with the exact same issue!
** This is both FridgeBrilliance and FridgeLogic at the same time -- "bad on purpose" is still ''bad''. - Tropers/{{Metz77}}

* Many of the quotes randomly generated by opponents in the Battle Subway are surprisingly humorous, deep, and -- yes -- terrifying. Including this gem of a quote from a subway worker:

* So, what did Team Plasma want with that Munna's Dream Mist again? Oh, right, they wanted to use it to brainwash the people of Unova into releasing their Pokémon and joining Team Plasma. If that had worked, [[spoiler:Ghetsis would have an unstoppable brainwashed army, which he could continually replenish and expand by harvesting more Dream Mist from Munna to brainwash new "recruits".]] [[NightmareFuel You're welcome.]]

* At 6 foot 6, Ghetsis is the same height as Big the Cat. Yes.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' takes place in Unova, which is based off of New York. And in Unova is the Resort Desert, which has the Relic Castle. The entrances to the Relic Castle consist of two broken towers... two broken towers in a fictional region based off of New York...
** Yeah, there's a huge desert in New York, too. Haven't you seen it before?
*** The desert could be the equivalent of Ground Zero, which is essentially in ruins. The whole Egyptian motif doesn't fit, though.
*** Along with the fact that the World Trade Center site would be much closer to Castelia City than Resort Desert.
** And there are Ghost-type Pokémon in there: the Yamask and Cofagrigus.
*** And Yamask are the spirits of dead people... which if we factor in Unova being based on New York and the "two broken towers" at the Relic Castle, in a deserted area of ruins... you know what, [[ShuttingUpNow I'm just going to shut up now]].
* In ''Black/White'', the Relic Castle contains a pair of ruined towers. The ruined towers are in Unova, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything which is based on New York City.]] Inside the towers are Yamask and Cofagrigus, which are stated to be the souls of dead humans. So if you capture these Pokemon? You're enslaving the souls of 9/11 victims to fight for you for the rest of your life.
** {{Jossed}}. While Unova is ''loosely'' based off of New York, it's also based on the USA (and parts of Europe) in general and the Ruined Towers have ''nothing'' to do with 9/11. They're based off of AncientEgypt.
*** [[YouFailGeographyForever Ancient Egypt isn't in the USA or Europe...]]
*** So? [[TakeThat The Ruined Towers are in Johto, not Unova]].
*** There's only one ruined tower in Johto: The Burned Tower.

[[center:[-'''Movies:''' [[Fridge/PokemonTheFirstMovie First]] | 2000 | [[Fridge/Pokemon3 3]] | 4Ever | Heroes | Jirachi: Wishmaker | Destiny Deoxys | Lucario | Ranger | The Rise of Darkrai | Giratina | Arceus | [[Fridge/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Zoroark: Master of Illusions]] | Black/White | Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice | [[Fridge/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect]] | Diancie | Hoopa | Volcanion | [[Fridge/PokemonIChooseYou I Choose You!]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Main Games:''' [[Fridge/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]] | [[Fridge/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby and Sapphire]] | [[Fridge/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]] | '''Black and White''' | [[Fridge/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 Black 2 and White 2]] | [[Fridge/PokemonXAndY X and Y]] | [[Fridge/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Pokémon Family Species:''' [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIFamilies Gen I]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIFamilies Gen II]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIIFamilies Gen III]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIVFamilies Gen IV]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVFamilies Gen V]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIFamilies Gen VI]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIIFamilies GenVII]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Movies:''' [[Fridge/PokemonTheFirstMovie First]] | 2000 | [[Fridge/Pokemon3 3]] | 4Ever | Heroes | Jirachi: Wishmaker | Destiny Deoxys | Lucario | Ranger | The Rise of Darkrai | Giratina | Arceus | [[Fridge/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Zoroark: Master of Illusions]] | Black/White | Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice | [[Fridge/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect]] | Diancie | Hoopa | Volcanion -]]]
[[center:[-'''TV Specials:''' [[Fridge/PokemonMewtwoReturns Mewtwo Returns]] | The Legend of Thunder | The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon | [[Fridge/PokemonOrigins Origins]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerations Generations]] | [[Fridge/PokemonIChooseYou I Choose You!]]-]]]

** As computers (or supercomputers, like Metagross is said to be) are redesigned and upgraded through the years, they become lighter and smaller -- compare a big, room-sized 1950s computer to something like a {{Mac}}Book Air, which can easily fit in your schoolbag.

[[center:[-'''Movies:''' [[Fridge/PokemonTheFirstMovie First]] | 2000 | [[YMMV/Pokemon3 3]] | 4ever | Heroes | Jirachi: Wishmaker | Destiny Deoxys | Lucario | Ranger | The Rise of Darkrai | Giratina | [[YMMV/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife Arceus]] | [[Fridge/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Zoroark: Master of Illusions]] | Black/White | Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice | [[Fridge/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect]] | Diancie | Hoopa | [[YMMV/PokemonVolcanionAndTheMechanicalMarvel Volcanion]] -]]]
[[center:[-'''TV Specials:''' [[Fridge/PokemonMewtwoReturns Mewtwo Returns]] | The Legend of Thunder | The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon | [[Fridge/PokemonOrigins Origins]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Spinoff Games:''' [[Fridge/PokemonStadium Stadium]] | [[Fridge/PokemonColosseum Colosseum]] | [[Fridge/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness XD]] | [[Fridge/PokemonMysteryDungeon Mystery Dungeon]] | [[Fridge/PokemonRanger Ranger]]-]]]
[[center:[-'''Other Media:''' [[Fridge/PokemonAnime Anime]] | [[Fridge/PokemonOrigins Origins]] | [[Fridge/PokemonAdventures Adventures]]-]]]

*** As dictator of not just Unova but the entire world, Ghetsis would turn the world into one where every day was one of suffering under his reign -- a world where your oppressors have all the power to harm you and keep you in line (as the only ones able to use Pokeéon) and you lack the power to fight back, and are thus made to feel enslaved in this dystopian world order. It's a FateWorseThanDeath, arguably as horrific as Cyrus' vision for the world, if not moreso seeing as here you'd keep your emotions and would thus feel every last bit of pain.

** Something else about Ghetsis's team: it is tailored near-perfectly to wipe the floor with N's team. He has multiple counters set up against Reshiram/Zekrom, and every single one of N's other Pokemon fares little better with their matchups. Ghetsis was ''planning'' on either N betraying him, or just taking out N once he'd gotten what he needed out of the kid.

* The depiction of Ghetsis and Team Plasma in general. Ghetsis is the chief sage of the Team Plasma sages, who are styled like priests. Since N is the king and the Plasma grunts are knights, the sages would represent the Church, who were allied with the king and knights in holy crusades during the middle ages. To Team Plasma, freeing Pokémon is their holy crusade. Thus Ghetsis and his true intentions represents lies, hypocrisy, and corruption of a person who knowingly and maliciously takes advantage of beliefs held sacred by people and twists them into something to suit his dark, selfish ends. He even holds public sermons and preaches on the matters, when in reality he's full of crap. But it gets worse from there: he's outed as an EvilSorcerer type person who's scheming to take power as a tyrannical, despotic dictator. Hiding this under the ruse of priesthood makes him the lowest scum possible, so thus he gets a makeover once everyone knows what he truly is. He keeps his pointed, horn-like hairstyle, but now wears a black and red visor on his right eye (his left eye is already red), wraps himself in a BlackCloak with creepy eyeball symbols decorating it, and carries around a staff with the Plasma insignia that is almost pitchfork-esque at a certain glance. So not only has Ghetsis gone from dark priest to all out EvilOverlord, but he's essentially styled as TheDevil himself. His original name, G'Cis Harmonia, can even be translated as "the Devil in music." His battle theme sounds like a Dark Reprise to that of Arceus, the God Pokemon, and the opening for the "Episode N" arc of the anime even has him set against a red, fiery, flaming backdrop as he throws back his cape in a very Devil-like fashion. Based on the man's actions and behavior, it's hard not to see this depiction as fitting, but then it really hits you...Satan was running the Church! Is there perhaps some disturbing commentary on religious groups of KnightTemplar zealots here?

** The Kanto starters have hidden abilities that depended on weather. Considering how prominent the weather metagame is in this generation, the developers might have wanted to make them benefit from it [[PanderingToTheBase for reasons.]]

* Route 4 is essentially {{Gangsterland}}. Gangsters? Check. (Scraggy/Scrafty) Crooks? Check. (Sandile/Krokorok/Krookodile) Pyromaniacs? Check. (Darumaka) Drug users? Check. (Sigilyph) If you ''really'' wanna stretch it, there's creeps (Frillish/Jellicent), Hobos (Dweeble/Crustle), and [[UnfortunateImplications Hispanics]] (Maractus), too.

** Ho-oh has Regenerator. It "regenerated" the legendary beasts from death.

** Something else about Ghetsis's team: it is tailored near-perfectly to wipe the floor with N's team. He has multiple counters set up against Reshiram/Zekrom, and every single one of N's other Pokemon fares little better with their matchups. Ghetsis was ''planning'' on N either betraying him, or just taking out N once he'd gotten what he needed out of the kid.

* N's Archeops with Acrobatics almost certainly wiped out Marshal's team when facing off against the Elite Four.